Gang Violence: Trend is a worry

Published 10:00 pm, Saturday, September 30, 2006

Seattle and King County police are paying attention. But stopping rises in gang activity and youth violence from becoming new epidemics will require a wider response.

Seattle, the region and the nation continue to enjoy the benefits of concerted efforts to reduce earlier waves of gang and youth crime that terrorized much of urban America. But a modest uptick in crime figures nationally seems to be having an encore in the first half of 2006.

Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske said gang resurgence was a big topic at a recent national conference. And local officials have reported anecdotal indications of growing gang and youth violence. King County Sheriff Sue Rahr said, "Gang activity never went away (entirely) ... but we are seeing an increase."

Some Oregon Residents Upset at Prospect of Pumping Their Own GasBuzz 60

Doug Baldwin playcallingBy Michael-Shawn Dugar, SeattlePI

Van Crashes Into Pedestrians Injuring SixAssociated Press

US military to accept transgender recruits after Trump drops appealEuronews

Snow on Christmas Eve, 2017Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Ice carving at WinterfestSeattle Post-Intelligencer

Amtrak derails near OlympiaGrant Hindsley / SeattlePI

Golden retriever meets Darth Vader and EwokSeattle Post-Intelligencer

Seattle's tunnel project, 2017 in reviewWSDOT

Hillary Clinton Book Signing Capitol HillSeattle Post-Intelligencer

As Kerlikowske notes, the crime problems of the late 1980s and '90s had a long buildup. Heading off a reoccurrence can be helped by taking lessons learned from youth crime problems then and doing even better. "We need to get back upstream better than we have in previous cycles" of youth problems, said Tony Gomez, a Public Health-Seattle & King County manager for injury and violence prevention. Communities and individuals can help in many ways, ranging from mentoring programs to family decisions to lock up guns.

Gomez praises local and state police for coordination on gun violence. But, with some notable exceptions such as a regional task force, federal authorities' attention has been reduced by terrorism concerns. Kerlikowske and Rahr said the federal retreat has meant lost aid for putting officers on the streets and less exchange of information about what anti-gang programs work elsewhere. More federal help is critical -- especially since gang violence is a kind of terrorism.

Even modest crime increases bring up questions about police staffing. Seattle City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck wants the city to study long-term needs for more officers, while moving to hire perhaps 50 new posts. Council President Nick Licata wants 10 officers hired to work in high schools and 10 community support officers. Locally, a healthy council debate about police staffing could help focus political and community attention on the wide mix of strategies that must go along with effective law enforcement. As a saying of the '90s had it, it takes a village.